Tossing the bridal bouquet is a tradition that goes back as far as the fourteenth century. According to legend, a bride was believed to be extremely lucky on her wedding day. After the ceremony, guests would rush toward the bride in order to tear off a piece of her dress to take home as a good luck charm. Often, a huge scuffle would ensue that became dangerous to both the bride and her guests. Brides began to throw their stockings, garters, and bouquet in order to fend off her would be attackers.
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At some point, the tradition changed, the attacks died down, and the tradition switched to throwing the bridal bouquet and the bride's garter. Of course, having spent so much money on flowers, you may find yourself balking at the idea of tossing it away. Since it is still considered lucky to catch the bouquet, you could be very unpopular if you choose not to toss. Luckily, there are some newer traditions that enable you to enjoy the bouquet toss without tossing the actual bouquet.
Instead of tossing your main bouquet, have your florist make up a smaller "toss bouquet" especially for the tradition. The smaller bouquet can be of a design similar to your wedding bouquet, but much less expensive. If desired, you can switch the bouquets between the ceremony and the reception, and few people will be the wiser.
If you decide that you don't want to "single" out the unmarried guests, you can still continue the tradition with a few minor twists. Consider giving the bouquet to the couple who has been married the longest or to whomever traveled the furthest to get to the wedding. You can also make a presentation of the bouquet to your parents or grandparents at the reception. If you can't decide whom to give it to, break up the bouquet in to smaller bunches and give them to several people at the reception.
A fun activity that can be done either in addition or as an alternative to the bouquet toss is the teddy bear toss. This is especially fun for any children who have attend the wedding. Purchase special bears dressed in wedding outfits and then toss them to a group of kids. Don't be surprised if you find a few adults lurking in there trying to catch the bears for themselves!
Should you decide to toss the bouquet (or bear) we have found some of the most popular songs used for this occasion. We have all types of songs from slow, fast, rock, country, oldies, and modern hits. For your convenience, we have included links to the sheet music on Sheetmusicplus.com as well as the CD on Amazon.com whenever available. If you are looking to purchase the mp3 or would like to listen to a sample, then click on either the Amazon, Rhapsody, or iTunes links.
Rhapsody provides both music subscriptions as well as individual mp3s for sale in WMA format and iTunes only provides MPEG-4 audio files for sale. However, Amazon does offer mp3s that are compatible with both Windows Media Player and iTunes. For more information about where to purchase music online, we provide it on our Music Downloads page or our Music Subscriptions page.
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For more bouquet toss songs go to page 2 or scroll down for more wedding reception song pages. Don't forget to check our numerous pages on Love Songs for more songs appropriate for weddings.
For more reception songs, go to Best Wedding Reception Songs or select one of the pages below:
For more ceremony songs, go to Best Wedding Ceremony Songs or select one of the pages below:
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